    EXHIBIT
    FINDING
A WOMAN'S PLACE AT VIRGINIA TECH 1921-2021

In this exhibit you can explore the different phases of Solitude’s history. We begin during the period when this place was indigenous land, and go on to explore its history as a slave plantation in the nineteenth century.

CLAIMING A SPACE—EARLY CO-EDS RESPOND TO CHALLENGING SITUATIONS

During the 1920s and 1930s, women on campus dealt with some challenging situations. First, there were no residences on campus to house the first women. Of the “first five,”  four students were from Blacksburg and could live at home. Female students who could not live at home, like Ruth Terrett, were housed in the private homes of professors or school administrators. By 1924-25, Woolwine House, located just off campus on Prices Fork Road, opened as a residence for women. The Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs provided Woolwine House as an early living space since many of Tech’s co-eds majored in Home Economics. 
  
Second, women were not allowed to walk across the Upper Quad where the cadet barracks were located. Women daring to walk across the quad might be hit with bags of water. However, the school bookstore was located in Barracks 1. Women had to send messengers or even their fathers to buy their books.  In addition, female students ate separately from their male counterparts because male dining halls were closed to women.

Woolwine House, residence for women

Upper Quad and Barracks 1 (Lane Hall)

  
Third, women were excluded from the school yearbook, the Bugle. The first co-eds responded to this exclusion by creating their own annual, the Tin Horn in 1925, 1929, 1930 and 1931. The foreword to the first edition states that a “spirit of rivalry” led the co-eds to create their own yearbook. The women hoped that the Tin Horn would “equal if not excel” the cadet’s Bugle. The Tin Horn celebrated women's organizations like the Dramatic Club,  Biology Club and Women’s Student Organization.

Foreword of the 1925 Tin Horn

The 1925 edition of the Tin Horn concludes with the following line: 
  
“If the reader is displeased, finding the whole an unharmonious product, we ask him to lay the faults to the imperfections of our instrument, for only shrill and discordant tomes can be produced by a tin horn.” 
  
From this line, it is clear that the early co-eds recognized how they were seen by the male population. They responded to the challenges on campus with both determination and humor.

A downloadable version of each Tin Horn can be found by clicking on the images below. 

MORE OF THIS EXHIBIT

THE PUSH FOR 
 CO-EDUCATION

THE FIRST FIVE

MALE RESPONSES TO
CO-EDUCATION

HOME ECONOMIES AT VIRGINIA TECH

HILLCREST HALL

MERGER WITH RADFORD COLLEGE 1944-1964

WOMEN OF COLOR AT VIRGINIA TECH

WOMEN AT VIRGINIA 
TECH, 1964-2000

WOMEN IN UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP

THE FUTURE OF WOMEN AT VIRGINIA TECH

OTHER EXHIBITS